Fall in love… Again

Did the new employee shine wear off? Are your existing employees making you scratch your head? This week on the air, we spent some time exploring how employees waste time at work. Everyone has high hopes for a new hire. We all want to employ dynamic, winning teams. But what happens when technology and social networking slowly erode the work environment. Let’s be clear, it is everywhere. I passed a US Postal Carrier walking down the street chatting on his cell phone (and you wonder why you get your neighbors mail). Our employees are distracted, they are unfocused and they are wasting time! But, it’s our new reality right? Only if you make it so…

Give deadlines – Perhaps the employees in your purview suffer from too much time on their hands. What a better way to manager results than to ask for things to be completed in a timely manner. At the end of each task, be prepared to dole out the next item on the to do list. And, this gives the manager a great opportunity to do progress checks along the way to ensure consistency in the level of productivity.

Ratchet up the workload – Bored at work? We have a cure for that – more work! Caution on this one though. Don’t overwhelm the employee to the point that your expectations soar beyond their abilities. You want to offer a challenge to these performers, but you ultimately need to set people up for success.

Open Environment – Again, let’s be frank. It’s everywhere. Texting, Snapchatting, Tweeting, Facebooking, Facetimeing, Candy Crushing. It’s an Insta-everything world. So, don’t hid from it. Don’t create the environment where people are attempting to try to hid their social media use. If you lock down your internet, that pushes employees to their mobile devices. Instead, try including it in the conversation. Try using an IM tool interoffice if that is appropriate. Do what you can to encourage team camaraderie. Make the environment engaging where they physically are in order to discourage the need to be virtually elsewhere, ie the world wide everywhere.

An Hour in the Day Diary – How did you spend the last hour? Any idea? Reading this blog, texting your sweetheart, winning a round of Words with Friends? Ask them. It can be an eye opening exercise. Where does the time go?

Fall in love with them again. Love is a roller coaster – so are employees. So, put your seat belt on, prepare for heart break and hopefully, finding a pearl in the latest clam you pulled out of the ocean of options.